"Speak low for all that, Daan," said Harold Dercksz. "Yes, I've known it all this time!"

"All the time?"

"Yes, sixty years."

"I never ... I never knew it."

"Speak low, speak low! And is she dead now?"

"Yes, she's dead"

"What did you say her name was?"

"Ma-Boeten."

"That's it: Ma-Boeten. I was a child of thirteen. She was Mamma's maid and used to look after me too."

"It was her children who began to molest me. She told her son about it: he is a mantri[6] in the rent-office."